The famous coach of Dynamo Kyiv, Jozsef Szabo, expressed his opinion on the former players of the capital's club, Artem Milevsky, Oleksandr Aliyev and Viktor Leonenko.
Jozsef Szabo- Who was the stronger forward: Leonenko or Milevsky?
- Of course, Leonenko. He is superior in class. He had everything: speed, punch, coordination, even a great header for his short stature - he was so jumpy. Milevskyi is a completely different player, he had no speed at all, he fiddled with the ball on the spot, covered his body.
- Both of them have difficult characters too. How did you fight with Milevsky?
- I took Milevskyi and Aliyev to the training camp with Dynamo's first team twice and sent them back both times because of their drunkenness. I remember that they were supposed to leave us for the youth team, which was led by Mykhailychenko.
Early in the morning, I told the administrator: "Call Aliyev and Milevsky, a taxi has already arrived for them". They had to go to the airport. The administrator came back dumbfounded: "Jozsef Jozsefowicz, they can't get up".
"How did they do it, huh? I checked in the evening, everything was fine! They must have had a good night's drink. I put them in the shower to wake them up and sent them to the youth centre. I don't remember what Mikhailichenko did with them.
Aliyev and Milevsky destroyed themselves. Now Aliyev is serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine - well done to him, thank you. He also helped Milevsky, put him in a clinic, but for some reason they quarreled. Thank God that Artem has recovered now, I wish him only health. He still wants to play football, he runs for some team, but his time has already passed.
- How did you get on with Leonenko?
- Leonenko liked to drink beer. Once, at a training camp in Germany, I found ten empty beer cans in his possession. But he worked well in training, although he was constantly grumbling to himself, always unhappy with something.
Leonenko considered himself great and the others mediocre. It was just a common arrogance. He came to Kyiv from Dynamo Moscow, where he was coached by Valery Gazzayev. Gazzaev told me at the time: "Jozsef, you're going to have a hard time with him". As it turned out, he was right.
Leonenko was a great footballer, and if it wasn't for the beer and his grumbling, he could have played for any team in the world, including Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Andrii Piskun
